I don't think it was frowned on, when I bought reman cranks I wanted .010 .010 cranks because both sizes were the same, and some cranks are nitrided or hardened, and it only goes so deep into the metal, so the less you turned it the better chance you had of a hard journal surface. and with both jornals the same size its just easier to order parts and not make a mistake. Actually as you reduce the size of the journal you reduce the bearing speed which is a good thing on a race engine. NASCAR for example has rules for what size journals can be for this reason.